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Greater Visakhapatnam municipal corprn office to run on solar power soon

Posted on June 25, 2016 by vreadmin in Realestate News

Visakhapatnam: If everything goes according to the plans, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) will be the first civic body in the state to use solar energy in its office and schools.

The civic body in association with AP Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL) and New & Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP Limited (APNREDCL) is likely to take up a 111KV-capacity Rooftop Solar Energy project in the city soon.

GVMC embarked on the solar power project as part of its efforts to develop Vizag as a smart city. The project will come up in the RK Beach area, which was voted by the people as their choice of ‘existing area improvement’ last year.

Preliminarily, GVMC proposed to take up the Rooftop Solar Energy at its main office at Dwarakanagar, its schools and primary health centre at China Waltair. All these come under the RK Beach area of Vizag Smart City.

A few days ago, APNREDCL examined the viabilities of the project. According to its report, the 111KV capacity Rooftop Solar Energy project has been finalised which will include 100KV capacity RSE at GVMC main office.

PV Rama Raju, APNREDCL executive engineer for Visakhapatnam, said the GVMC requires 500KV capacity Rooftop Solar Energy for its main office, but due to lack of space, the proposal was only for 100KV. The remaining 11KV units were distributed among schools and health centres of the corporation. The 500KV capacity solar project require 50,000 square feet of space, but the GVMC has only 10,000 square feet on the roof of its main office.

 “The total cost of the project is Rs 79 lakhs including Rs 69 lakhs for the GVMC main office. We can generate electricity of four units per day from 1KV of solar panel. Clearances were given from our department, it is now for the GVMC and APEPDCL to discuss the final proceedings,” Rama Raju told TOI.

Rama Raju further said their department will give nearly 20% subsidy on the total project cost only after the installation. The GVMC will have to spend the entire amount of the project.
A senior electrical official from GVMC said the main office monthly consumes nearly 50,000 units of power. The average electricity bill is around Rs 5 lakh per month. “If the solar project comes, the expenditure on the energy consumption will gradually decrease. This apart, we will also conserve energy by saving nearly 12,000 units of power per month without drawing from the APEPDCL,” the electrical officer said.
An official from APEPDCL said they were also ready to give clearances to the GVMC to go ahead with the eco-friendly project. “We will discuss the project at the chief minister’s meeting in the city scheduled to be held on June 25,” the discom official said.